American Airlines testing in-flight Wi-Fi tomorrow

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Hey, here’s a happy surprise for anyone who may happen to be flying from New York (JFK) and Los Angeles on American Airlines tomorrow. The company will be conducting “a dress rehearsal” of in-flight Wi-Fi service, called GoGo, provided by Aircell.

American has a fleet of 15 767-200 airplanes that have the Wi-Fi connections installed and ready to go, so assuming the flight tomorrow goes off without a hitch it’s expected that the service will be rolled out to flights between New York and Miami and New York and San Francisco over the coming weeks.

Tomorrow’s trial flight will offer the Wi-Fi service free of charge, but once the service is in full swing, it’ll cost $12.95 for flights over three hours and $9.95 for shorter flights.

According to the Dallas Morning News,

“Users will be able to download video and e-mail, use instant messaging and access secure corporate networks through the system using laptops or handheld wireless-enabled devices such as BlackBerrys.

Gogo will not enable any voice-based functions. And the system will prioritize the flow of data so that passengers downloading movies or large documents won’t prevent other passengers from getting their e-mail.”